“I know what they think they seek. But I know it to be a lie. Listen to me, Arren. You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose…. That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the light of sunrise and sunset, to buy safety for yourself—safety forever? That is what they seek to do on Wathort and Lorbanery and elsewhere. That is the message that those who know how to hear have heard: By denying life you may deny death and live forever!—And this message I do not hear, Arren, for I will not hear it. I will not take the counsel of despair.”

Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 8, "The Children of the Open Sea" (Ged)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I know what they think they seek. But I know it to be a lie. Listen to me, Arren. You will die. You will not live forev…" by Ursula K. Le Guin?
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Ursula K. Le Guin 292
American writer 1929–2018

Related quotes

Ayn Rand photo
Peter F. Drucker photo
Jimmy Lai photo

“The intention of the Chinese government taking away our freedom is so obvious that we know, if we don't fight, we will lose everything...When you lose the freedom, you lose everything. What do you have?”

Jimmy Lai (1948) Hong Kong businessman

October 13, 2019 What keeps the months-long, massive Hong Kong protests going? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hong-kong-protests-60-minutes-on-the-streets-of-hong-kong-with-pro-democracy-demonstrators-2019-10-13/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7d&linkId=75253573

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Socrates photo

“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

42a
Plato, Apology

Alfred Binet photo

“Since we seek to know what is the physical phenomenon we perceive, we must first enunciate this proposition, which will govern the whole of our discussion: to wit— Of the outer world we know nothing except our sensations.”

Alfred Binet (1857–1911) French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test

Source: The Mind and the Brain, 1907, p. 12

George W. Bush photo
Milan Kundera photo
Erica Jong photo

Related topics